Information technology (IT) leaders should be creating business-driven strategies to support the business, instead of strategies driven by technology, says Daniel Lai, Head of IT at MTR Corporation in Hong Kong. IT needs to be aligned to the business, which is a challenge that may be solved by creating new business models. A speaker at the marcus evans CIO Asia Summit 2010 taking place in Macao, China, 18 – 20 October, Lai talks about adopting business-driven technologies, the roles that Chief Information Officers (CIOs) need to juggle and innovating IT.

What should CIOs make other executives aware of?

Daniel Lai: Whether we are experiencing good times or bad times, IT needs to play a role where it can be adopted to enable and support the business. IT should not create technology-driven strategies; strategies need to be business-driven and IT must be developed around common objectives that demonstrate success.

There are various roles that the CIO needs to take; one that requires full exploration and assessment role, another may involve marketing and selling of new concepts and technologies, and one of adopting and developing sub-technologies to support the business.

What initiatives to improve IT productivity and efficiency would you recommend?

Daniel Lai: Do more with less. One strategy could be to see if non-core functions within IT can be outsourced for better quality and cost effectiveness. CIOs should look at improving IT continuously; techniques such as Six Sigma or the IT Infrastructure Library enhance IT efficiency and various other operations. CIOs should also look at standardising IT and consider virtualisation.

How can IT be more innovative?

Daniel Lai: Innovation is not about creating new technology; it is about creating new business models and solutions with our imagination. For example, companies can buy a certain technology and transform it into a solution that supports the business in an innovative way.

Aligning IT and business is a challenge, which can be solved by creating new business models. Reducing time to market is difficult, but there are technologies which can deliver solutions rapidly. There is not a single cure-all for the wide spectrum of business challenges, but technology could be more innovative in coming up with solutions for the business.

What trends do you expect to play out in the near future?

Daniel Lai: Cloud Computing is certainly a hot topic, and more services should be offered using this as a platform and software as a service. Time to market can be shortened by introducing new services, and there is the opportunity to deal with capital and asset protection. Virtualisation can also save energy, reduce costs, power and CO2 emissions. CIOs ought to look out for new technologies and determine the crucial ones to implement within the organisation.

This unique forum will take place at The Venetian Macao, Macao, China, 18 – 20 October 2010. Offering much more than any conference, exhibition or trade show, this exclusive meeting will bring together esteemed industry thought leaders and solution providers to a highly focused and interactive networking event. The summit includes presentations on business process reengineering, safeguarding data from IT threats, and effectively implementing cloud computing.